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Internally displaced persons (IDPs) take a break on an armed AU peacekeeping convoy escorting about one thousand Muslims from the capital Bangui to the northern towns of Kabo and Sido, on the border with Chad, near the village of Dekoua, Central African Republic April 28, 2014

Segregating Muslims in Central African Republic to protect them from Christian militia shows the world’s failure to tackle a deepening sectarian crisis, a U.N. official said on Thursday as the United Nations scrambles to find thousands of peacekeepers.

Foreign troops have escorted thousands of Muslims to relative safety in the country’s north, while thousands more have fled to neighboring states. Peacekeepers helped around 1,300 Muslims out of Bangui on Sunday, triggering looting and removing one of the last pockets of Muslims from the capital.

“It is a collective failure of the international community that we were not able to provide the security for people in their homes,” said John Ging, director of operations for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

“If [the Muslims] stay they are likely to be killed. If they flee that’s not the solution,” he said. “The separation and segregation of communities in this country is not a solution for this country going forward.”